‘Riverdale’ Pulled off an Amazing ‘Scream’ Tribute

Horror movies are a part of Riverdale‘s DNA. From casting the actor who played Candyman to talk about a serial killer named Sugar Man in Season 2, to Season 3’s H.P. Lovecraft inspired art, you never know when an Easter egg will sneak into an episode of the show. But this week’s Scream inspired tribute was on another level entirely, and may point to surprising twists in the series’ future.

Spoilers for “Chapter Forty-One: Manhunter” past this point.

In the episode, which was expertly directed by TV vet Rachel Talalay, Betty (Lili Reinhart) is trying to get to the bottom of what happened in Riverdale decades ago, during the flashback events of “The Midnight Club.” After confronting various members of the Riverdale parent cast, she’s no closer to the truth than she was before. In fact, even more suspects have seemingly been implicated.

Frustrated, she returns home to confront her mother Alice (Mädchen Amick), and that’s when things get super fun. The scene opens with Alice making Jiffy Pop, a direct shout out to the opening scene of the 1996 horror hit Scream:

Photo: Miramax

In the movie, Drew Barrymore’s character is chatting with a mysterious, gravely voiced man on the phone, flirting with him as she makes popcorn. He’s later revealed to be a terrifying killer (well, two, actually, but we’ll get back to that in a second). On Riverdale, like in Scream, the main function of the Jiffy Pop is to help build tension…

As Betty yells at Alice, Alice walks around the kitchen, and you could certainly note that the Cooper’s kitchen is laid out almost exactly like Barrymore’s in Scream. Part of that is because Talalay shoots the kitchen from the side of the island in the middle. Usually on Riverdale, the camera is placed facing the island, or with characters in close-up. The angle used here mimics the one in the movie neatly, and certainly makes me wonder how much inspo the Riverdale staff took from the movie when building the set (though the rest of the Scream house is decidedly different).

Photo: The CW

Then the Gargoyle Gang, a group of men who worship a being called The Gargoyle King start terrorizing the house. The King himself seems to be in the living room, so the Coopers escape upstairs to Betty’s room. They get there, see an ominous gravestone and skull on the bed, and just as they’re processing all of that, someone starts climbing up a ladder. Alice brandishes a lamp to knock him out, until it turns out to be FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich)…

…Which is basically the ultimate Scream Easter egg. Ulrich, in case you didn’t know, played Billy Loomis in the movie. The boyfriend of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Billy is at various times accused of, and then acquitted of the horror movie themed murders perpetrated throughout the film. Later, he turns out to be one of the two killers for real, teamed up with Matthew Lillard’s insane Stu.

But zoom back a bit to when Billy and Sidney are trying to repair their relationship. After a hot and heavy hook-up, Sidney says she isn’t ready for sex and gets ready to kick Billy out. As he leaves through the window, she says, “Would you settle for a PG-13 relationship?” and flashes him.

Photo: Miramax

Later, Billy crawls through Sidney’s window again to “save” her from the killer, and the scene on Riverdale is a near shot for shot remake.

Photo: Miramax

Seeing Ulrich crawl through a window is a direct shout-out to one of the most iconic scenes in Scream. This is followed up by another shot of Ulrich holding Alice, which directly parallels a shot of Billy holding Sidney in Scream. And in both cases, there’s a look on Ulrich’s face that could indicate a lot of different things.

Photo: The CW

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It’s also part of a history of homages to director Wes Craven’s work on the show, something that SYFY detailed nicely here. And, it may hint at something greater in the fabric of the show that a fun Easter egg… As of the end of the episode, all the parents in Riverdale are suspects for the Gargoyle King’s misdeeds, including FP. It was certainly convenient that he happened to have a ladder handy at the exact moment the King invaded the Cooper residence; and that the attackers left after he arrived.

Is FP Jones really The Gargoyle King? And if we follow this Scream theory down the rabbit hole… Could the King be more than one person?